Cat's Claws, Dog's Tale
by Overobsessy
Summary: CO WRITE! Has anyone else gotten the suspicion that Sesshoumaru and Toran of the panther tribe were once more than just arch enemies? Take a look at their past relations, what drove them apart, and what might one day bring them back together again...
1. Prelude to a Prologue

**This fic was inspired by me watching the panther demon arc of the Inuyasha series for about my millionth time and JulyFlame's first time. This was when I voiced the main pairing of the fic. The truth of this being the feeling that there's definitely (besides a fan service air to the whole thing) an underlying sense of Toran and Sesshoumaru being together once upon a time. So here we are, co-writing a fic about their past relations.**

**And now a word from JF.**

**I'm truly excited about this fic we've started writing. The pairing is fresh (or at least mildly), and we aren't pairing the enigmatic Sesshoumaru with an original character, Kagome, or a mature Rin (Augh!). Kagura paired with Sesshoumaru makes sense, but it seems a bit short lived, considering the character. We (or at least I) even hope to make our own fanon universe from this pairing, with sequels, parallel pieces, original characters that make at least half a wit of sense (though I assure you this is not happening for quite a while since we're going to make full use of the characters provided to us by the beloved Rumiko Takahashi), and perhaps even the occasional convoluted confusing crossover of our own fanon universe with it's own parallels! Only time will tell, and until then, I hope you read our growing fic, which we surely hope will become a behemoth in the fan fiction world of Inuyasha!**

**And because JF took up so much of our author note that people are actually willing to READ, I'll make this disclaimer short.**

**Disclaimer: We no own Inu. We no own Sessh. We no own Toran. Enjoy now, or caveman beat you with heavy stick.**

* * *

"We just can't do this anymore!"

Sesshoumaru stared back, thawingly. "Oh? And why is that?"

"We'll be the invading the east soon, and your father is standing in the way!" Toran pointed an accusing finger at him, eyes frosty despite his look.

"He is? Could it be that it is the panther tribe that stands in the way of this? There would be no need if there was no invasion."

"Don't glaze this over with your antics! The panther tribe will invade the east no matter _who_ stands in our way!"

"Would love be in the way?" His eyes softened the tiniest bit, as did hers.

She relaxed her arm, her entire countenance drooping. "Sesshoumaru . . ."

The softened glance faded away as quickly as it had came. "I see how it is." He started, as though to turn.

"Sesshoumaru, wait." She took a few steps towards him, reaching slowing out to touch him.

Their eyes met once more. "I cannot wait for you any longer. We have both gone through many obstacles to reach this, and you are too willing to throw it all away. That is not what I am looking for in a mate."

"I didn't ever say I wanted to throw it all away! I love you, Sesshoumaru!"

"If you loved me, why did you, then?"

"I never wanted this to come in between us! You were supposed to understand!" Toran put both of her hands on his shoulders, staring deep into his eyes, almost pleadingly.

"I do understand. You simply misunderstand yourself." He took one of her hands and clasped it, gently.

Her eyes shimmered for a moment as she looked into his amber eyes, then fell down to his hands holding hers, and she sighed. "So it's over then?"

"I was not the one to say it, but I suppose it is." He lowered her hand slowly, and kissed her lips as soft as he possibly could as he let go of her hand.

Toran relaxed at the feel, responding lightly as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

He unwrapped her arms, and turned to leave into the light misting pure rain that had started to fall.

* * *

**So we hope you enjoyed this 'prelude to the prologue'. All the odd paragraphs belong to yours truly, and the evens are JF's. **

**A word from our own personal blabbermouth and we shall bid you adieu.**

**Now that I suppose this is over, shall we give you willy nilly bits and pieces? What say you, Over?**


	2. Prologue

**Wow, our second installment already started and it is not even the next day here yet. Thank you, our two first reviewers, especially misikoblossom! Well, on to the show, right, Over?**

**I feel like a member of the three stooges, only there are only two of us.**

**Err, right. Disclaimer time!**

**Neither of us own Inuyasha. That is something Rumiko Takahashi has the creative prowess to make and claim. Over is the originator of the Sesshoumaru/Toran pairing, as well as the contributor of much of the Inuyasha information, while JulyFlame is the one able to claim most of this fic as her idea. We both alternate writing, with Over starting.**

* * *

Toran lay over her master's corpse, devastated at the loss. "No . . . master . . ." Her voice shook terribly as she tried to hold back any less than youkai emotions. "Master . . ."

Out of all the remaining panther demons, she was the only one protecting the cadaver. All the others were tending to wounds, both their own and others. The carcasses of the other youkai were already being encroached upon by carrion feeders. She was doing her best to keep the same from happening to the master's body, which was marinating in its blood and bile.

The suffocating mist rose from the crimson battlefield, engulfing everything. From it came two figures, one taller than the other, immerging first. It was none other than the Inu no Taisho himself, eyes narrowed slightly.

"You!" Toran hissed, her attention taken from the body finally. "You did this!"

The leader of the dogs coldly stared at her, watching carefully from the corner of his eye as the red headed panther stumbled into view, clutching a wound on her arm and panting. "You would have been wiser to stay in the west. No one will inflict any harm on the people living under my protection."

"Why should we have stayed in the west when-" Toran stopped, as a figure departed from the obscurity from the mist.

It was none other than Sesshoumaru himself, staring straight at her.

"Why do you protect a cadaver? The carrion creatures are not easily satiated by only regular youkai bodies when this is available. They are likely to start feasting on the wounded, your wounded, without being allowed access to it."

"Se-Sesshoumaru . . ." She stood slowly, her presence still enough to fend off the lower creatures as they swooped low over her head. "Why . . . why are you here?"

"As the heir of the Western Lands it is expected that I am present when the lands are in peril from the likes of you," he said, coolly.

Seeing his coldness towards her in his father's presence, her countenance flared instantly. "You think we'll let you two get away with this!"

"Toran . . ." Karan called over to her, looking rather worn out as she looked up at her older sister. "Come on, we gotta find Shuuran and Shunran and get out of here."

"Shuuran and Shunran can wait, Karan. Stay here with me. These _mutts_ should not be allowed near the master's body."

"What would we want with the body of a dead panther?" The older daiyoukai looked at his son. "Do you have any interest in a panther rug?"

There was the briefest acidic look in the younger youkai's eyes that flashed against everyone nearby.

"But… Shuuran and Shunran…" Karan looked nervously at the Inu no Taisho, Sesshoumaru, Toran, and the dead body. Despite her weak protest, she stayed close.

Toran gave one last cold glance back at her master's corpse, hate boiling in her chest. "Alright, Karan. We'll go look for them." She held her hand out to make her ice weapon appear, gripping it tightly. "As soon as I avenge the master!"

She hurled her weapon at the older dog, yelling in anger as she charged him.

"Hn." The Inu no Taisho didn't even move, brushing his hand so that it hit the handle of the spear enough to hit it away. "Sesshoumaru, handle this nuisance."

Sesshoumaru quickly lunged at the panther demon, tightly gripping a wrist. For the briefest moment their eyes met as his slid to look at the Inu no Taisho. His grip immediately went from firm to painfully strong.

Toran bared her fangs at the dog, holding back a hiss of anger. If this was how he was going to act in the presence of his father, she wouldn't hold back anything either. Planting her feet firmly in the ground, she ripped one hand away, grabbing his shoulder and forcing her powers through her fingers, glazing him with ice.

Karan gasped. "Toran!" The younger demon rushed to her sister, who wasn't removing her hand from the dog youkai.

She was immediately glared down by the two squabbling demons, stopping her from coming to aid her sister.

Toran turned her fierce stare back on Sesshoumaru, hissing through her words. "I'll _never_ forgive you or your father for this. You'll both die if it's the last thing I do."

Sesshoumaru stared solemnly back at her. "Then someday I will make your last action start in Hell." With a powerful body movement, he broke free of the glazing of ice that had linked him once more, but only temporarily, to Toran.

"Tooooraaaan!"

She looked over her shoulder as she leaped back and away from Sesshoumaru, seeing Shuuran running towards her. One of the canines was chasing her, and because she was the youngest and her powers were not yet developed, she could not get it away from her.

The canine was quickly frozen solid through, locked forever in time, in a predatory run with his jaws open wide. The panther demon tribe would never allow the canine to be thawed.

"Nee-san!" The girl quickly hugged her oldest siblings legs, still terrified. Karan quickly ran over to the two, also scared out of her young mind.

"Toran, we need to get out of here!"

"First I-" Toran looked back, towards where the two canines had stood. They had both left, the shroud of mist and the predatory canine allowing for their unnoticed departure.

"Alright then, we'll leave," she told her two sisters. And quietly, she said to her self, barely voiced, "I will find you Sesshoumaru. No matter where you go in these eastern lands."

She straightened herself upwards and looked at the corpse. "Make sure that someone comes to bring the leader's body back with us. But for now, we look for Shuuran."

**

* * *

Well that was fun, despite the discovery that JF has no friggin' idea how to play any kind of card game, not even Solitaire. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed the prologue and the actual story will begin next time. Which might actually be today, and if not today, in a week or so.**

**Yea, our updating schedule will likely be odd, but probably sensible. And cards have nothing to do with this, Over. So basically, it seems our installments will hopefully get larger in size every time we write, and also hopefully will have less bad starts for me since some one enjoys writing such hard paragraphs to follow up!**

**Which then allows me to say that JF honestly is not very good at connecting the dots other people set for her, such as what to have Sesshoumaru do after Toran attacks. But enough of this, you shouldn't be forced to bare our (or mostly her) blabbering.**

**I don't blather…. Um, anyways, hope you enjoyed!**

**Which was already said. No. End. Bye.**


	3. Chapter 1

**We probably should have mentioned this before, but the prelude and prologue are both in different times, in chronologic order of course, but there is a span of time between the prelude and prologue. This might help the seeming OOC of the prelude make a bit of sense, and such and so.**

**I would also like to point out that we're trying to make this as canon as possible, and if you don't know the basic story from the anime, it shall be written in here at a later time.**

**Now on, with the disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: Over owns the Inuyasha guruship, the idea for the pairing, the popularity domain, and the OOC censorship. JF owns the bulk of the fic idea, the t-shirts, paraphernalia, etc., and the plot shovership. Everything else is owned by others.**

* * *

Toran sat on a rock beside her siblings, lost in thought as she had been for the past few hundred years. As usual, her mind wandered around her master, then the Inu no Taisho, and Sesshoumaru.

Karan growled beside her, staring into the fire. "I hate this. No matter what we conquer anymore, I can't quit thinking about our failure in the east."

"That's because that is our only failure," Toran snapped, pulled out of her thoughts.

And it was true. The panther demons had never lost in such a way before or after that battle centuries ago. There had been close calls, there have been unbelievable victories, but never a lost, never a complete failure. They had always gotten what they set their eyes on and claws in.

"It wasn't that bad, sis," Shunran tried to reassure her, mentally wincing at the memory.

"Who do you think you're kidding, Shunran? It was a total failure," Shuuran gave him a cold look, juvenile though it was.

The one male panther growled at his little sister, ready to stand to fight her. Shuuran started back at him.

"Shuuran… Shunran…" Karan warned. Toran's moods had become more and more dangerous with each passing decade, and the other two sometimes made the moods turn near fatal, and Karan had been dangerously close to Toran the last few times these moods came up.

The brother and sister didn't pay attention, and with only the briefest of signs, started fast on each other.

The eldest sibling stood, not even noting the two siblings' bickering. "We're going to the east again. And this time, we shall win against those dogs!"

Shuuran and Shunran stopped fighting, Shuuran's jaw loosening from the arm that was tweaking one of her ears.

"T-Toran?" Karan looked up at her, seeing the determined fire in her eyes. "But what can we do against the Inu no Taisho? If the master couldn't beat him, then what can we-"

She was cut off from an icy glare by her sister.

But Toran did indeed know the reason she wanted to return.

Sesshoumaru . . .

She held back a growl just thinking of him now.

"We will find a way to beat him. But right now, we gather the tribe to ready ourselves."

"Sis, think reasonably. The Inu no Taisho can kill any number of our panthers easily. His three swords would see to that," Shunran tried to show his sister the path of sanity once more, but she seemed to be completely consumed by her confidence.

"Then we will steal his swords!" she declared. "Not only will he not be able to use them against us, but we would be able to use them against him and those mangy dogs!"

Shunran sweatdropped. That was certainly not what he was aiming for, and if anything, seemed ever so more dangerous than just trying to invade once more.

"We don't even know where he is, Toran," Shuuran piped up, trying to help her brother. "He could've died for all we know."

"Died? The Inu no Taisho die?" Toran laughed at the thought, a creepy, cynical laugh.

"Stronger youkai have died before," Karan piped up.

"Stronger youkai have died due to their age. The Inu no Taisho is still in his prime, and I shall be the one to kill him!" Toran smiled, near crazy.

"What about his son then? Sesshoumaru or whatever? He's also very strong." Shuuran gave her a serious look, being the only one to understand that there had been _something_ between them.

Toran instantly lost her crazed look, replaced with a look of pure loathing. "Sesshoumaru will die first."

The others were silent, seeing that there was no stopping her.

She jabbed her finger at the trees, several pairs of glowing green eyes visible. "Now, everyone prepare to leave for our revenge on the Inu no Taisho and all his kin!"

* * *

Sesshoumaru had never been quite the type of youkai to simple do nothing as he thought, so he was enjoying his favorite pastime of simply wandering, Jaken following at his heels. His thoughts swirled over many topics: How was his worthless hanyou brother wasting his time nowadays? When would Jaken quit following him? Why did he have Tenseiga? How could his father possibly have lost to a youkai like Ryuukossei?

Stewing on none too long, he walked through the domain of Musashi tirelessly, ignoring Jaken's complaints.

It wasn't until he reached a human road did he stop.

The bodily remains of mortals were sprawled about the road, all throats cut and bleeding onto the dirt rutted path. Several of the bodies belonged to women, and had been killed in disgraceful positions. There were several bodies of children as well, though it seemed that whatever had been done to the women had not been repeated to the younger generation.

Sesshoumaru laid but the most briefest glance at the scene. He had came upon visages like this many times before, and he had ignored them all. He navigated the bloody road, avoiding stepping on the corpses.

"Please . . . help . . ."

Sesshoumaru paused his process, and looked for the source of the voice, and soon located a small girl child, not yet dead. Thelittle one was well on her way, even so.

He locked eyes with her desperate brown ones for a moment as she reached out a hand for his assistance.

"You want my help, girl?"

"Yes . . . please . . ." The blood from her wound stained the earth around her red as she visibly weakened, setting her chin on the floor with her eyes shimmering.

Sesshoumaru scoffed. "Why should I help a weak mortal like you? You humans do not interest me."

Any hope that was in the girl's eyes died.

Sesshoumaru walked on and returned to his musings, with a hand unconsiously on his Tenseiga.

"Lord Sesshoumaru?" Jaken, having stayed behind during his 'conversation' with the human girl, came back up to his side, looking up at him.

Sesshoumaru withheld a sigh. "Yes, Jaken?"

"There have been rumors from the west, my lord."

"And?"

"It's about the . . ." The little toad twiddled his thumbs, nervous about bringing up the topic. "The panther tribe . . ."

"Yes?"

"The rumors say they are in the east attacking your father's peop-"

There was silence as Sesshoumaru stared at the sky, looking at a small green object that had only started flying through the air.

"So you have finally come back . . ." Sesshoumaru said softly.

With that, he turned to walk, somewhat hoping that Jaken would not be able to locate him once again.

* * *

The squeal that broke out through the still silence of the night cut through the empty clearing like a hot knife through butter, the owner of the cry trying valiantly to escape the young panther that held him.

"Now tell me before I slit your throat," Shuuran hissed, an evil glint in her eyes. Her companions looked on from a little distance, their claws also bloodied from the many demons they had already interrogated.

The fox youkai squirmed as he felt her claws dig into his neck, knowing that if he didn't speak she would kill him as if he were nothing. "Th-The Inu no Taisho is . . ." He choked a bit as his head was jerked up.

"Where?" Toran had joined in, getting impatient as she grasped his hair. "Where the hell did that coward run to?"

The kitsune promptly spit in her face. "The late Inu no Taisho is no coward."

"Late? You mean the Inu no Taisho is dead?" The evil glint sapped away as it was replaced by anger. Before the fox could reply, she snapped its neck, brutally.

Torandropped the body and stared at the others. "If the Inu no Taisho is dead, then we shall go after the son."

"Shouldn't we wait to see if there is another youkai that is leading the dogs?"

"No. It will be Sesshoumaru, I am sure of it. And he will be mine!"

Shuuran flinched.

"Sis, don't you think you're being a little irrational here?" Shunran, the ever cool-headed one, tried to bring his sister back into the right. "What about your plan to take the swords from the Inu no Taisho?"

"If the Inu no Taisho is truly dead, then Sesshoumaru will have the swords. While we might not have been a match for the Inu no Taisho, we will surely be able to defeat Sesshoumaru!"

"Sis, are you sure about that? We don't really know how strong Sesshoumaru is. The last time we fought, he wasn't on the battlefield."

"Sesshoumaru is not strong enough to take us on. And I will make sure of that." Toran clenched her fist tightly in front of her face, remembering what he had done. "We'll take the swords from him instead and defeat the dog line once and for all!"

"How do you propose we do that, Toran?" Karan walked up to join in the argument. "It's not as if he'll just hand them over on a platter."

"I never said it would be easy, Karan, but without those swords, Sesshoumaru will be nothing." Toran looked at each of her siblings in turn, making sure they wouldn't back out of this. "Then even Shuuran alone would be able to take him down."

Shuuran pouted for a moment. "Hey! I did just as much as all of you during the last battle with those dogs!"

"Shuuran, that was a compliment," Toran said, momentarily focusing on something besides revenge. "Now, we find Sesshoumaru."

"Sis." Karan put her hands on her hips, giving her sister a serious look. "You just killed the only lead we had on any of the dogs. How the hell are we supposed to find him now?"

Toran blinked at her sister for a second, then cleared her throat slightly. "We merely need to find another lead. It shouldn't be too hard to find. We're close to Musashi's domain as we speak, the place where the Inu no Taisho once lived."

Shunran groaned. "We have been searching without rest for days! We smell like the dogs and look dun colored! Can't we rest?"

Toran started to protest, but a wind caused the smell of them to drift past her nose and crinkle it. It was true. They did smell like the dogs, and filthy ones at that. This was likely due to their choices in youkai to interrogate, which had happened to mainly be canines.

She quickly covered her nose, eyes twitching from the smell. "Alright. We'll go our separate ways to bathe and rest, but we all meet back here in two days."

"Yes!" the others quickly piped, happy to finally have convinced their leader. "Two days!"

Within seconds, the rest of the panthers were out of sight.

Toran vaguely wondered why they wanted to be out of her view so badly, but it was quickly dismissed as the stench entered her nose again. She shuddered and made her way to find a place to bathe the smell of dog away. Sesshoumaru could wait for at least two days, especially with such a smell hanging her like a noose.

**

* * *

And that's it for this week. Maybe more tomorrow . . . maaaaybe . . . Anyway, for those who read this, please review! July's getting oh so depressed!**

**I'm not getting depressed, just a bit feeling left out. You would too, if your main babies had only three reviews! So that's it for now. Next chapter: Bathing, and other comfy delights! Beware a short story for after this coming maybe sometime. There is surely an opportunity!**

**Maybe written by her, for I am not so low. Myeh. So yes, either today or next week we'll have another chapter. Byezies!**


	4. Chapter 2

**Over here. Back with another chapter even though we technically posted the last one!**

**Well Over, you gotta post the previous chapter before you post the one that comes after it. I call doing the disclaimer!**

**That's my job!**

**Disclaimer: Over gots the ship and bit of plot, I've gots the ideas and most of the plot, Rumiko Takahashi gots all InuYasha stuffs including plots, characters, and drawing style. Over and I don't gots money from these recreational habits. We've also gots no original characters for this fic at all yet. Well, there was that kitsune in the last chapter but we wasted him so he doesn't count.**

**P.S.: Over owns the 'scum demon' aka Samuke.**

**Very nice. Now on with the story.**

* * *

The cool water easily slipped up to her bare ankles as Toran waded into the river at the base of a water. Pulling apart her kimono, she pulled the now loose ends up to her knees, walking still further into the water. 

'I guess this wasn't that bad of an idea,' she thought as she gazed over her shoulder at her armor drying on the bank underneath the pale moonlight before throwing the rest of her clothes next to them, stroking out into the middle of the river. Despite her avid hate of water, it was nice to just relaxinto the gentle flow of it once in awhile, removing all impurities that she loathed even more.

Getting used to the water, she took a deep breath, falling gracefully under the surface as her hair swirled up after her, the blood and grime releasing almost instantly.

She floated up to the surface nearly instantly, and watched as a very pale pink tint took over the water's surface. A very romantic view indeed, she thought, looking around the scene. A maiden bathing in a pink lit river below a silver moon, perfect for any who chanced to watch her. All that was missing were water flowers. Toran allowed the silly mental image to flow away with the river as she let her self and body relax under the rare moon.

* * *

Jaken still hadn't caught up with Sesshoumaru when the daiyoukai had found his way to the outskirts of the Domain of Musashi. How he had managed to avoid him for so long was anyone's guess, but he was glad of it, wanting more than anything to be alone at that moment. 

Why did the damn toad have to bring _her_ up of all people? Sure he had no idea of what had gone on between them, but just thinking of her now was enough to make him lose his cool air, even for a short time.

The cool night air played with his hair, so much longer now than it had been. He paused on a small forested cliff, his mind racing to the last time they had seen each other. The vow he had made to himself would remain absolute.

Even if . . .

His eyes traveled down at the sound of disturbed water, and oh so slightly they widened.

Not only was it the damnable panther youkai Toran, but she was completely naked, bathing in the water.

The accursed liquid had taken on romantic tinge of pink, most likely from blood or a similar substance, but that didn't distract from its attractablity, in fact making it rise a bit, unfortunately enough. The winds that were cooling the air tonight had made the darkened sky's clouds move quickly and the moon was certainly not helping by having that silver aura. The only thing that could possibly be missing were water flowers.

As if to spite him, a single blossom from a cherry tree fell right in front of his nose, gently floating down to land in front of her incredibly perky bosom. This action only caused him to stare for a little bit longer than he was comfortable with.

He slowly put his foot back, ready to turn, but as she stood to walk out of the water, his eyes stuck to her form as if he were actually transfixed by her.

"Ludicrous," he whispered to himself, finally being able to turn away once she had put her kimono back on.

It kept all his conscious strength to focus his thoughts back onto Jaken and the avoiding of said demon, and not on the female youkai he had fallen in love with once so long ago.

* * *

Toran sneezed, and wondered if it was wise of her to bathe so late at night. It was still chilly out sometimes, and though youkai had an incredibly hard time catching colds, or illnesses in general, it was known to happen on occasion. 

At any rate, she continued walking towards where she had seen a small human settlement. Even though the panther tribes normally were the type to capture, and then enslave a human village or sometimes town, she had made it explicit to the others that this time they were going to keep a low cover as to not let the canines know they had come back so quickly.

Once in the town, she immediately spied the village's tavern, mostly due to the drunkard being kicked out. Toran checked her sash for anything of worth. She had quite a bit of coins that had been 'taken' from the humans she had interrogated earlier. It would probably be worth it to see if the humans had any knowledge of Sesshoumaru's whereabouts.

She quietly sighed to herself, not liking to rely on human (and the occasional low-class demon) gossip. Straightening to make her look as not to be messed with as possible, she proceeded forward, drawing back the hanging and instantly covering her nose at the scent of fresh alcohol and vomit.

'How can these humans _stand_ to stay in one of these places?' She pushed her way through the crowded wooden tables, looking for the main counter as her eyes slightly watered simply from the reek of it all.

The only good news was that the men were mostly ignoring her and were chatting, the way they were always said to. As she sat down, she watched a dark haired scum demon, she could tell by the scent he was not human, beside her stiffen at the sounds of some old men talking about a bounty.

'So apparently I'm not the only one to come here for gossip,' she thought, leaning her cheek on her hand.

"Hey, sweetcheeks. What can I getcha?" The bartender that looked as if he could pass for an old fart in demon years wiggled his eyebrows at her as he leaned on the counter, cleaning out a wooden cup.

"Get the hell away from me before I show you what your shriveled insides look like." Her death glare would send most humans running.

"Feisty. I like that in a girl." He slipped some mysterious liquid in front of her. "Have some. On the house."

Toran inwardly twitched at the liquid as she held up its container. She couldn't even figure out what it was by smell, though she did know that she did not want to drink it.

"No thank you, sir." She smiled cynically as she put the container down. She inwardly told herself the day she drank that would be the day that she and Sesshoumaru loved each other once more.

Ignoring any protests the man had to offer afterwards, she turned around on her stool to see what the rest of the creatures lurking in this depressing place were up to.

"...'s heard a demon slaughtered those travelers up yonder. True as true!" Toran heard as she looked at the patrons of the place. Aside from the low demon, all were human, and some quite odorous ones at that.

"Couldn't have been! I heard that it was a group of bandits! Yoru's a blind ass drunk, and so are you for believing his trash!" another man bellowed, despite being as sober as Toran was content.

"You suppose it was that thief the lord of the region's after?" a younger man with the armor of a slightly higher official added, arms around a few whores.

"That girl thief ain't known for slayin' humans though," the original speaker leaned back in his seat, loosening up his sash for his belly to spill out. "If it wasn't bandits, my money's on that dog monster the rumors talk about."

'Dog monster?' Toran's attention peaked at the mere mention of it. 'If that's not Sesshoumaru, I'm not a panther.'

"You mean that one that killed the armies warring in the south?"

"Yeah, him."

The official let out a visible shiver, amplified by the girls' moans. "I'd hate to get on the wrong side of that demon. I hear all the other youkai in the area fear him as well."

'Definitely Sesshoumaru.' Toran slipped quietly off the stool, noticing for the first time that the other demon had left, leaving a rather large tip on the counter that a neighboring drunk was eyeing greedily. Quietly, she walked over behind the man surrounded by whores that had spoken last. "Tell me. Where was this massacre you were speaking of?"

"Woah ho ho!" The men instantly got excited at the presence of a pretty female, and the panther had to fight off the urge to throttle them. "Come 'ere, baby!"

She tried to contain herself, but the temptation was too much as she bared her fangs, letting them know just _who_ they were dealing with here.

Apparently, her little show of demon prowess was enough to keep their steadily approaching hands away from her.

The older man, the second speaker, who had not been hitting on her, scratched his ear lazily. "Yoru's got it in his head that the attack was just a ways north of here, though you never can trust that old geezer's eyes." He pulled out a rather large chunk of earwax, flicking it off his finger.

"The north, eh?" Toran straightened, smirking in her usual fashion at the thought that Sesshoumaru was so close. "If I ever meet you old farts again, I'll be sure to think twice before killing you."

Her fingers glided gently over the hilt of her rarely used sword, and she found herself suddenly longing for Sesshoumaru's blood to stain it.

This hatred she felt suddenly almost surprised her. Hadn't she originally just wanted him back as her own? No. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to _murder_ him. No cold hearted bastard that had so easily turned on her would touch her heart again.

Of that she would be certain . . .

**

* * *

Wow. I got a little overboard there on writing the end, didn't I, JF? **

**... crickets sound from JF's unwillingness to write...**

**Umm . . . right . . . I'll just . . . post this now . . .**


End file.
